Paul Kelso is the Telegraph's Chief Sports Reporter.

Ditched Olympic Stadium wrap exposes London 2012's failings

The wrap was designed to decorate the outside of the Olympic stadium (PA)

Given the economic climate the London 2012 Olympics were always likely to face cuts, but this week we had confirmation that these really could be the no-frills Games, in the case of the main stadium, literally so.

The Olympic Delivery Authority confirmed on Tuesday that a fabric “wrap”, intended to conceal the functional workings of the largely temporary stadium structure, had been scrapped to save £7m.

Instead of the innovative screen, which we were promised would feature a multitude of projected animations and ever-changing designs, visitors to the Olympic Park's definitive venue will be greeted by the bare innards of the arena, the girders and breeze blocks currently painted an austere black

The decision is a classic example of the London project’s failure to get to grips with the stadium project and the issues surrounding its legacy.

At the launch of the stadium design in November 2007, a rather overblown all-star affair in a marquee on the stadium site, much was made of the wrap. It was the designer’s sole defence against the charge that aesthetics had been sacrificed in order to find an affordable, technically viable solution to the need for the stadium to be stripped back from 85,000 to 25,000 seats after the Games.

They promised a variety of options, from projecting the flags of competing nations or the pictograms used to represent each sport, which is the design that features in the computer-generated images still being used by the media.

Neither was the wrap purely decorative, they said. It was necessary to help prevent wind inside the stadium affecting the ability of athletes to challenge world records, as well as offering shelter to spectators in the event of – perish the thought – rain.

"This is not a stadium that's going to be screaming from the rooftops that it's bigger and more spectacular. This is just a cleverer building," said Rod Sheard, the lead architect, back in 2007.

With the wrap gone – apparently the wind issues no longer apply – there is a danger the stadium will register barely a murmur, and Sheard for one is not happy. Sports minister Hugh Robertson said this week that fans of minimalist design will love it, a theory borne out by Lord Rogers, who has always loved an exposed duct or two and approves of the new wrap-free design.

But it is not only the stadium that the absent wrap leaves exposed. The decision also lays bare the muddled thinking that has dogged this particular venue.

The wrap was only required because of a design that prioritised stripping the arena back to 25,000 seats in order to fulfil the commitment to an athletics legacy that was central to London's bid.

"It's a stadium that delivers on everything we said we would deliver on; a stadium with track and field as its primary legacy; a stadium that will be reduced from 80,000 seats in Olympic mode to a 25,000-seater community base," Lord Coe said at the time.

In fact economic realities mean that football will be the biggest beneficiary. Athletics does not pay its own way, leaving West Ham, Tottenham and stadium management group ISG bidding to take on the arena. The terms of the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s tender document do not even demand that the main stadium retain a track, though there must be an athletics legacy funded by the new tenants.

Spurs and their American partners AEG won’t hesitate to rip out the track and offer an athletics legacy on the warm-up facility next door, though West Ham, backed by Newham Council, will retain athletics in the main arena.

Meanwhile the short-listing process has been delayed without explanation from the OPLC, which is doing little to inspire confidence that it can solve a riddle that has defied a neat solution in the five years since London won the Games. The OPLC's prevarication has also cost London the chance of staging the 2015 World Athletics Championships.

If this carries on much longer, those responsible might want to reinstall the wrap so they have somewhere to hide.